Army of the Dead producer, Deborah Snyder, stresses the importance of representation in the cast. Still hot off the release of his Justice League cut on HBO Max, Zack Snyder will be shifting to Netflix for his next film, his first outside of the DCEU since 2011. After his feature film debut in 2004 with Dawn of the Dead, a remake of the 1978 classic, Army of the Dead also spells Snyder's much-anticipated return to the zombie genre. Now that he is likely done with DC's franchise, Snyder hopes to start a connected universe of his own with Army of the Dead as two other installments, Lost Vegas and Army of Thieves, are already in production.
Army of the Dead takes place years into a zombie outbreak that has been contained within Sin City. A short-order cook and a band of ragtag yet expert mercenaries are tasked with stealing $200-million from a vault underneath the Las Vegas Strip. With elements of heist and zombie movies, Army of the Dead looks to reinvent the genre by including new breeds of biters, surprise sci-fi elements, and social and political commentary. The film also boasts a large and diverse cast headlined by Guardians of the Galaxy star, Dave Bautista, Garret Dillahunt, Theo Rossi, Omari Hardwick, comedian Tig Notaro, and many more.
During a set visit in 2019, Screen Rant had the opportunity to interview Army of the Dead producer, Deborah Snyder, and discuss the film's diverse cast. Deborah has developed a great working relationship with Zack over the years, having produced many of his movies, including 300, Watchmen, and his three DCEU installments. Here's what Deborah has to say about the importance of representation in the cast:
Something that was really important to us was to have a global cast. I think that both of an audience standpoint and being on Netflix, the majority of the audience is international, and also it just makes sense in the fabric of our lives. Even here, there's lots of people that are represented, there's no reason it had to be just all American and all white. We wanted to represent many ethnicities.
Deborah Snyder and her fellow producers were very successful in assembling a global cast for Army of the Dead, as it features actors hailing from Mexico, the United Kingdom, India, Germany, Japan, and France. Some of the film's international cast includes Ana de la Reguera, Ella Purnell, Huma Qureshi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Nora Arnezeder. During the set visit interview, Deborah Snyder also stressed the importance of having female characters who are "just as strong as their male counterparts," which the film also seems to have achieved, based on the trailer.
In recent years, there has been an intense push for more representation in Hollywood productions, and with the film's team of all-star mercenaries coming together to pull off a heist, Army of the Dead presented the perfect opportunity to assemble a truly global cast.
